STRASBOURG, Oct 6 (AFP) - The European Union should apply "the same criteria and methods" to Turkey's membership bid as it has done to other entrants to the 25-nation bloc, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.
"We want no more than what was done for the 25 members of the EU -- that the same criteria and methods be applied. We want nothing more," he told a news conference at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
The prime minister also described a proposal last week by French President Jacques Chirac to hold a national referendum on Turkish entry as "very unjust."
"Up till now there has never been a referendum to accept a country," Erdogan said. It was "a very unjust approach ... which would have a negative effect on the motivation of the (Turkish) population," he said.
Erdogan was speaking after the EU Commission recommended the start of membership negotations with Turkey, while setting tough conditions for their successful conclusion.
Earlier he told the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly that he hoped accession talks would begin in the first half of 2005 and lead to membership in a "reasonable period of time."
"We hope to bring a long-travelled road to its final lap with the initiation of accession negotiations in the first half of 2005," he said.
"Turkey's membership will not be realized overnight. Certainly Turkey anticipates concluding this phase within a reasonable period of time. To this end, we in Turkey will fulfill our share.
"We are confident that the positive tone set by the commission report and recommendation will be matched by the political will on the part of the leadership of the member states of the Union," Erdogan said.
The 46-member Council of Europe was set up in 1949 to promote human rights and parliamentary democracy in post-war Europe. It has no formal link with the EU.